:: Happy Mail Project - About Me ::

Last month I signed up for an 'About Me' swap, hosted by Gracie's Happy Mail Project. I love being a part of the Happy Mail Project - it means fun mail is always filling my mail box! I was partnered up with Alyssa, and couldn't wait to read all about her in her journal :)

Here is what a snippet of what I sent Alyssa:

And here is a peak at what Alyssa sent me:

Alyssa used water colour to decorate her journal which made it super cute and creative! I am also in love with the pretty papers and bits of bling she included in her package. We are also pen pals now, so I am a lucky girl!

Speaking of stationery-related things, don't forget to enter my giveaway!

:: Journal Swap ::

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the wedding photos I've posted so far. It's been fun to look through all the photos my family and friends have taken! And wow, Mr LG and I have seen our professional wedding photos. There is no way we can easily choose our favourites for an album - they're amazing!

In non-wedding related news (don't want to inundate you all!) I met up with the lovely Gracie on the weekend. It was fantastic to meet her in person after all the emails, blog comments and snail mail we have sent each other. Back in October Gracie and I did a journal swap together. We chose some journal prompts including first celebrity crush and favourite quotes and used those as inspiration.

Gracie's journal for me -  I loved how pretty it was and how much it reflected her personality.

My journal for Gracie!

Yes, you saw right - that is Taylor Hanson.

Doing the journal swap sparked my creative side and my love for snail mail again. Since joining the blogging world I have gained a few pen pals from various parts of the world, but I would love more! If you'd like to become pen pals, let me know - I'd love to write to you!

:: Snail Mail ::

This Friday I received my parcel for Gracie's 'Because You're Lovely' swap. My partner was none other than Gracie herself. Here is what she gave me:

As you can see, I was spoilt rotten! Gracie's package was full of so much lovely, my heart just about burst! I adore each and every single item she selected for me - I am an absolute stationery nut (just in case that wasn't already obvious!). I have already worn the darling necklace and can't wait to wear the earrings! Gracie, thank you so very much  - not only for organising such a fantastic swap, but for putting so much thought into my package. I love it!

Here is what I gave Gracie in return (pales in comparison, I am sorry to say):

In other snail mail news, here is what I gave some of my other pen pals as a first little gift with my first letter:

And here is what I gave Jess with my first letter (you can see what she gave me here):

I have also just been given my partner for Jess's 'Colours of the Rainbow' swap. My partner likes pink - I can't wait to start shopping for her!

In other un-mail related news (but very male related news, haha) my younger sister has started her minor contractions! I will have a little nephew some time very soon. I expect to be woken up at some ridiculous hour tonight, but if not she will be induced at 7am tomorrow morning as her water has already broken. We are all so excited to meet the little man!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

:: Stationary Stationery ::

I love stationery. My love for stationery started when I was in primary school. Whenever our book work was particularly neat or we answered all our questions correctly we were sent up to the principal's office to show him our good work. My first primary school principal gave shiny stickers as rewards. And, being the hoarder I am, I still have all of those stickers. I can thank him for the extensive (or is that 'expensive'?) sticker collection I now have.

I moved schools in grade four and my new principal gave out pencils. I quickly became obsessed with collecting different types of pencils. The very first pencil I was given - it was holographic silver - has survived a move across the country and now sits amongst a few hundred other pencils. I have pencils from around the world, and I hope to have a touristy pencil from every country (and state, if possible) one day.

By the time I was 10 we had moved across the country and I started my love for snail mail. This was in 1993 and was well before the days of email. I wrote to all my friends and even to my grade six teacher (I'm a little bit of a nerd, hush). It was so exciting to come home and find an envelope, usually covered front-to-back with stickers and drawings, with your name on it. I would sit for hours at the kitchen table writing rough drafts of my return letters to make sure my reply was perfect (I am sounding nerdier by the second, oh dear!).

By the time I reached high school I only had one penpal left (my best friend, so loyal!), so I packed up all the letters my friends had written me and put them away (a sad moment, let me tell you). I still have all of their letters in a box in or storage room. My interest turned to journals around grade 10, thanks once again to school. We had to keep a 'diary' of sorts for English and we had to write a minimum of 400 words a week on whatever took our fancy. By the end of grade 12 I was the only student in my grade who continued writing in my journal!

In grade 11 and 12 my friend and I each bought a journal and did our own version of a journal swap. We would write in our journals for a month and then swap. We would then write in the other person's journal and swap again at the end of the month until we filled up the books. I still have those journals - full of Hanson, Backstreet Boys and our school crushes. Hilarious!

By the time I hit Uni I had less time for snail mail and journalling, so I used my stationery love to organise my Uni notes. Every subject had a specific colour - each colour had a book and folder to store all my information. For every assignment I wrote I made sure I had co-ordinating post-it notes and highlighters to make the final draft easier to collate. I turned to LiveJournal for all my journalling needs and met some awesome people from around the world.

Now I have entered the concrete jungle and my work desk is covered in pretty post-it notes and fancy pens. Everyone at works knows where to come if they need a higlighter or a fun piece of stationery-related goodness. It's a source of much amusement for the 'boring' types who use pale yellow office-issued post-its! All my work colleagues laughed when we received new work-issued stationery, because they knew I would love it.

But really, what's not to love about it? If you're going to have work stationery, it might as well be a little bit fun. I love the cliched slogans and asked if we would be getting an eraser with 'Erasing our past' written on it, ha. Apparently not :( Sad.

For the past few years my stationery collection has been sitting in my drawers, gathering dust. I have written to interstate friends before, only to receive an email response. But then I found you lovely people! I now have a reason to write again and I can't wait!

Gracie and I will be doing a journal swap which I am so excited about.
Also, over at Gracie's blog is a 'Just Because You're Lovely' swap. Check it out!
I am eagerly anticipating my first letter from Jess.
And, I have also signed up to be a part of the Dear Darlings penpal group over at O, My Darling.

And so, my stationery will no longer be stationary! It sounds so nerdy (but I think we're slowly establishing that I am a nerd, so that's okay), but this makes me so happy! I'm glad I'm not the only snail mail fan left in the world. I can't wait to look in my letter box and see envelopes addressed to me that don't contain bills or statements telling me how poor I am.

Do you have a love for something like this? Does gardening make you happy? Are you excited by the prospect of trying out new recipes? Do you obsess over jewellery? I'd be interested to hear about it!

I hope you all have a magnificent weekend. I am off to the Ekka (our Royal Show) on Sunday, and I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!

Much love.